Freedom of Speech: I’m pretty much an absolutist when it comes to all the First Amendment rights. But as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, the right of free speech is not absolute. One of the limits, in my view, should have to do with facts, not opinions. Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed wisely that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

It was a colossal blunder for Congress to exempt social media from responsibility or liability for what they allow to be posted on their websites. It allows people (and bots) to post lies willy nilly all over the place with no accountability for their dissemination. That’s not right on its face.

Twitter made some limp wristed attempts to address this issue this week, by adding oblique disclaiming comments on a couple of President Trump’s tweets, but the refutations were week and open to misinterpretation. They should be stronger and clearer and relentless.

For example, when Trump posts a flat out lie, Twitter’s comment should be “This tweet is factually incorrect.” If after this comment, Trump continues to post the same statement, then the next comment should be, “Since the writer keeps posting a statement that has been debunked, we assume he knows it is factually incorrect, but is posting it anyway, so you should infer that he knows he is lying now, and not just mistaken.”

Social media will resist this much policing for a number of reasons, one of which is that once they have posted that second comment, it begs the question why they are letting a flat out lie remain on their site anymore at all. They would have to remove it. This is Okay with me. Trump says enough stupid stuff as opinions to scuttle him anyway.

Oh, and another thing. Nothing should be permitted to be posted by a bot. Bots are not humans. Surely, we have the technology to block them.

Morning Joe: As an prime example of how bad things have gotten on social media, President Trump via tweet accused Joe Scarborough, a talk show host on MSNBC, of killing one of his interns many years ago when Scarborough was a Congressperson, though the coroner ruled the intern’s death an accident and Scarborough wasn’t even in the same state when she died.

These tweets not only should not have been allowed on social media sites for a New York minute, they should be actionable.

Worst state: Try as I might to achieve diversity, it is difficult to give the cup to any state but Kansas these days. On the plus side for the Sunflower State, Mike Pompeo will not be running for Senate this term; he let the deadline to file pass. Presumably, Pompeo prefers being Secretary of State, and may have his eyes on the big prize down the road. He is a nakedly ambitious man. However, I am pretty certain Pompeo’s political career will end the day Trump leaves office, if not before.

On the minus side, Pompeo’s passing on the Senate race opens the door for Kris Kobach, a Kansan who is a Pompeo wannabe only without the brains. Kobach hates immigrants, Muslims, blacks. He hates everybody but pasty old white guys, and just the fact that he is on the primary ballot wins Kansas the cup again this week.

The Numbing Sameness of the News: At a time when we are desperate for diversions in this period of self-isolation, the news offers no stimulation.

The news cycle is on a continuous loop: the death toll from Covid-19 keeps rising (I’ll win my bet on deaths being over 100,000 – just like science forecasted – before the end of May); the Trump administration tries to cloud the issue; Trump himself denies any responsibility for anything, insulting people gratuitously and looking for any scapegoat for his failures. Then, the same thing the next news day, with perhaps a new shiny object.

The scapegoat de jure is China, whose initial response to Covid-19 was little better than ours, though they got their act together sooner. Previous scapegoats have run the gamut from the current, such as his own medical experts, Democrats, uppity females, and that old standby, the media, especially uppity female media, all the way back to Obama and institutions established over the last 70 years. To go back any further to find a scapegoat, Trump will need a time machine.

But it doesn’t really matter, and Trump doesn’t really care. He just needs to blame somebody, anybody. I hope everyone else will be as sick of the pattern as I am come November when it is time to vote. (Actually, I will already have voted…by mail.)

The nature of natural disasters: To be sure, and fair, and intellectually consistent, any natural disaster is going to be bad, and we can’t rationally pin them on the president. No president caused Hurricane Katrina, or Hurricane Sandy or Covid-19.

The Covid-19 virus may be the worst kind of natural disaster. It’s new to our species, so we don’t know anything about it, let alone have any immunity to it. We are starting from scratch and learning as we go. Mistakes and missteps were inevitable.

But what we can judge a president on is how he or she responds to the disaster, and in the case of Katrina and Covid-19, presidents failed miserably in each. This should not be surprising since the two presidents in question are the two worst presidents since the Civil War.

Worst State: Speaking of worsts, as long as Mike Pompeo is on the national scene, Kansas will always be in the running for the cup, and Pompeo certainly made a strong case for himself again this week. But picking Kansas every week because of him is becoming monotonous, and in any case, I think we need to reset the bar for Kansas until Pompeo is gone.

So, let’s give the cup to Texas this week, because it has more uninsured residents than any other state by a margin, and it seems to want it that way. With all the job layoffs from Covid-19, it’s estimated that Texas will add 1.4 million people to its roll of uninsured citizens. Something like this is happening in many states. It is one of the myriad problems with our employer-based healthcare system.

But in Texas, the situation is more egregious, because Texas already had more uninsured citizens than any other state. Texas is one of those irresponsible states that did not expand Medicaid as is available through Obamacare, showing naked disregard for its poorer citizens. Texas deserves the cup this week.

Obamagate: President Trump says former President Obama has committed “the biggest political crime in American history, by far!” He says we all know what it is, though we don’t, nor does he, because it doesn’t exist.

But I’m sure that in
Trump’s twisted mind, Obama has committed many crimes, for example being more
intelligent, better educated, more competent, more accomplished, more eloquent,
more popular and having had a larger crowd for his inauguration.

But there is one crime
that Obama is guilty of in Trump’s mind that is worse than all the rest, a
crime for which there is no appeal and no reprieve: he’s black. Trump is a flat-out
racist bigot and the President’s obvious superiority over him must gall Trump
no end.

The Covid-19
Spectrum: An objective look at a
map of the U.S. showing virus cases by state – some with cases increasing, some
with cases steady and some with cases declining – makes it clear there is no one
size fits all solution.

The point is that it’s
not black or white, red or blue, open or shut. We need to stop thinking like
that and work out an actual plan that addresses the different situations and
needs. If only we had a government capable of such a thing. That not being the
case, I’m staying hunkered down for a while longer. In fact, I may be the last
one to peek out of the air raid shelter.

Worst State: It’s
no secret I’ve been thinking of reviewing the six worst states, possibly removing
one from the list and inserting another in its place.

One of the reasons I have not done this yet is that at
this moment, the state that I would remove from the list is Arizona, my own
personal state at present, and though I think it is doing a better than the
other worst states, I’m not sure I am being completely objective about this.

If I were to replace one worst state with another, I
could do a lot worse than selecting Wisconsin, a state that has run off the
rails. I don’t know what happened. Wisconsin used to be an enlightened state with
a good educational system and strong sense of environmental responsibility. Today,
the government is dominated by radical right-wing extremists, utterly
uninterested in representative government, only political power.

Worse, even the court system has jumped into the political
fray. The state supreme court has given up any pretense of judicial
independence. It is the first state of which I am aware where the court has
become an aggressively partisan political player.

Kentucky would be another good candidate. It’s southern,
like the other worst states (Oklahoma is actually midwestern, but it thinks it
is southwestern), with all that implies, and Moscow Mitch McConnell has pretty
much screwed it up for a generation or two.

If I made the call today, it would be Arizona out,
Wisconsin in. But I don’t have to make the call today and I won’t. I’ve decided
to wait until after the November election to see where the chips fall. The
elections could change a lot. On the other hand, if Trump wins, I will quit
blogging all together, so there won’t be any more “worst states.”

I wanted to give the worst states – Alabama, Arizona,
Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas – the week off so I may think about
this some more, but I can’t because Mike Pompeo. He’s been such an obsequious sycophant
this week that Kansas gets the cup.

The mendacity and stupidity of the Donald:
Okay, let me see if I have got this straight.
More than anything else, Trump wants to open up the country because the pinched
economy is hurting his reelection chances. Yet he has refused to mobilize the
nation’s resources to produce, distribute and utilize testing materials, the best
currently available way to impede the virus. Now, he is urging everyone to run
out and gather together for germ exchange fests.

The Trump’s administration set some guidelines for
states to meet before opening up. Has a single damn state met the guidelines?
No, yet Trump is letting them all skate. In fact, he is encouraging the
ignoring of his own standards. (Did I just use the words standards and Trump in
the same sentence?)

The CDC stepped in with guidance for states to follow
when opening up. States, at least Republican states, are not following them, so
what does Trump do? He withdraws the guidelines. No guidelines, no violations.
It’s as simple as that.

I’m taking the over on American deaths reaching north
of 100,000 by Memorial Day. But I’m taking the under on how many states will
retreat from opening up too quickly, because….

Making Angels in America: The
evidence is clear that Trump doesn’t give a rodent’s rectum if minorities, the
elderly, meatpackers or prisoners live or die. In fact, it’s apparent that
Trump doesn’t care who lives or dies except himself, and possibly Ivanka, and
many Republican governors, at least, seem to be fine with this. I understand
about Trump. He is the most narcissistic sociopath I have ever seen or heard
of. But the Republican governors?

Justice in America: The Department of Justice has gone completely
to hell in a handbasket. DOJ attorneys are now defending the criminals, even
self-confessed ones, instead of prosecuting them.

Attorney General William Barr is such a Trump sycophant that he has become complicit in Trump’s crimes, lies, obstructions and disinformation to an extent that would make Nixon’s AG John Mitchell and Dubbya’s AG Alberto Gonzales blanch. (The former went to jail and the latter had to resign for his mendacity.)

Meanwhile, police, particularly in the South, continue
to take target practice on blacks. A couple of knuckle dragging, mouth
breathing Georgia crackers with associations with law enforcement, shot and
killed a black man who was jogging, because, you know, since he was jogging, he
must have been running from a capital crime.

The local sheriff and district attorney couldn’t find
any malfeasance in these circumstances. It took an actual honest officer of the
court to step in. What a goddamn mess. I am sick to death of this racist shit.

There is an odious, racist joke in Texas, based on
actual events. The body of a black man wrapped in chains is dragged out of a
lake. The sheriff says is that just like a nigger to steal more chain than he
can swim away with. This actually happened. The sheriff could find no evidence
of a crime. The Feds had to step in. I’m not sure the Feds would step in today.

Relief: Still no relief
check for me. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s due to incompetence, a constant
with the Trump administration, or because I call him what he is. I owe money
for 2019 taxes, which I haven’t filed yet, so if/when I get the money, I will
just turn around and send it back to the government.

Worst State: It was hard to pick a winner this week. All
the worst states were opening up too aggressively, even the two I mentioned that
seemed to be doing a little better last week. (Arizona let our pig part
president into the state and let him get away without wearing a mask…at a mask
making factory.)

But the cup goes to Oklahoma, where, by my count of
news stories, redneck Okie citizens have been the most abusive of employees of
businesses who have asked properly for customers to obey rules for mask wearing
and social distancing. And by abuse, I mean physical assault.

Trump thinks donors are his friends and his voters are pigs: I picked up on this one almost as fast as the Clorox cocktail cure for Covid-19 Trump was touting. Apparently, many others have too.

Trump waved the Defense Production Act around like a
dog with a chew toy, but he did not use it to mandate production of testing equipment
(the priority need for understanding and therefore controlling the virus), PPE
equipment or ventilators.

But when the major meat packers wanted to re-open
their lethal plants, not only did he use the Act to permit this, but he promised
to indemnify the producers for all the people they killed in the process. I’m
not even sure this last part is legal, but it probably is. Hell, gun
manufacturers are indemnified from suits for the deaths they cause.

It amazes me that Trump voters think he has their
interests at heart when all the evidence points in the opposite direction.

A modest suggestion: There
is something obscene about people going hungry and agriculture destroying food
simultaneously. It haunts me to see long lines of cars waiting to get food, and
then read about meat producers planning to put down animals because there is no
way to process them. Since Trump is now mandating, how about mandating his meat
processing magnets to process some for the people needing food right now? Here
is my suggestion:

Have each major meat processor – pork, beef, poultry,
eggs, allocate one plant to the purpose of serving food banks. Refit it to
specifications established by the CDC to create maximum safety for workers.

Send to these plants the overstocked livestock that
would otherwise be destroyed, process it at these plants and distribute it to
food banks.

In a like manner, mandate farmers who are currently
plowing under produce that cannot be harvested or sold, to stop that and send
the excess to the Feds for distribution to food banks as well.

The federal government would pay the processors for
this, of course. In fact, the Feds should oversee the entire process. Any
competent government would be able to manage such a feat, though in our case,
we may have to have the states do it, since our Federal government can’t hit
the floor with its hat, and has no charity in its heart.

The end of April as we know it: Around mid-April, I opined that given the
apparent death rate from Covid-19, it would be unlikely that we would reach the
forecast of 60,000 deaths by the end of April, and considered this as evidence
that the effects of the virus would extend beyond April, and so the crimping of
the economy would also have to continue beyond as well.

I was wrong on both counts,
apparently, certainly the death count. At the end of April, we had more than
62,000 deaths by official, and certainly understated, count. And, many states
are spitting the bit and racing to open their isolation and social distancing
protocols, regardless.

May
Day: I saw my first Communist May
Day Parade in Paris in the mid-70s. I wonder if many countries not Russia or
China even have these anymore. No county seems to care very much about its
workers these days.

The beginning of May is the
time many states are busting out the gate to expose their workers to Covid-19.
Good luck with that, and I am now taking the over on the initial 100,000 +
death total.

The
China did it with a lie on the internets: What possible practical purpose is there to blame China for a natural catastrophe
other than to stoke the xenophobic fears of Trump’s ignorant base for political
gain? It is odious and farcical, particularly considering that the Trump
administration is engaged in false propaganda as China. The fire has already
started. Let’s concentrate on putting it out now and talk about how it started
afterward.

Fry’s Fail: The
Kroger chain goes by the brand name Fry’s in my town. Like many Kroger stores,
apparently, Fry’s opens these days at 6 am for seniors only before opening for
the general public at 7 am, presumably to give seniors some extra measure of
protection and sense of security.

I went to Fry’s just before 6 am recently to test this
idea. There were several people already there, but they were politely lined up
at least 6 feet apart, and all of them save one was wearing a mask. (I assumed
Fry’s would stop him at the door, but they didn’t.)

When I got inside, I was startled to discover that
almost none of the employees was wearing a mask. As I was checking out, I
mentioned to one of the employees, also in the high-risk older demographic, how
surprised I was to see so many employees without masks. She said, and I quote,
“We have a choice.” I thought if I were the store manager, I’d give the
employees a choice too: wear a mask or find another job.

One might think it irresponsible to invite at-risk
seniors into a store with an implied promise of safety and then be reckless
with their safety when they came. I know I think so.

I resolved not to return to this store until after the
virus has passed or hell freezes over, whichever comes later, but I had an
emergency need and returned one morning. This day, almost all the employees
were wearing masks, but not the lady I spoke with before. I walked up to her
and said, “I cannot believe you are so ignorant.” I know this sounds harsh and
rude, but when I came back to check out, she was wearing a mask, so I have no regrets.

Worst state: Who
to choose, who to choose? All the worst states have chosen to open up, as you
would expect. Two of them – Kansas and Arizona – are doing it a little more
responsibly. So, let’s let the other four worst states – Texas, Oklahoma,
Alabama and South Carolina split the cup this week. And may their citizens not
have to pay too heavy a price for their profligacy.

Small Business Loans Program: The
mishandling, corruption and fraud in administrating this program is emblematic of
everything that is wrong with American politics today.

With this program, as with all such federal
distribution programs, however they are set up in theory, when the lobbyists,
fat cat donors, corporate executives, bankers, hedge fund managers, and their
enablers in the legislature are finished, the bulk of the money is always raked
off by them before their intended beneficiaries ever see a nickel of it, and
what they do see is the hind tit of the total. And there is nobody to stop it
the way our system works today. The wrong people are going to jail.

The bodies politic: Over
the last couple of days, I have been trying to calculate the effect of Covid-19
on the voting public. I don’t mean the political calculation. We all know what
that is. Trump’s base is not moving at all. It is like a diamond, rock solid. But
like a diamond, it cannot grow. In fact, the only influence on a diamond is
compression. On the other hand, every time Trump opens his mouth, I see
independent voters, mostly women, revulsed by Trump and moving away from him as
if he had put his hand on their knee.

No, I’m thinking of the demographic calculation. Note:
this is a rather cold- blooded calculation, so please forgive me.

On the one hand, the virus is killing “people of
color” (can’t we find a better term?) disproportionately, and most of them,
blacks in particular, vote Democratic, so this favors Republicans. On the other
hand, this virus, like most others, kills older people disproportionately, who
tend to be more conservative, hence Republican, which favors Democrats.

Switching to whites, the virus seems to prefer males
(probably because we are more careless and age faster), and many white males,
particularly uneducated ones, tend to be not only Republican, but Trumpsters.
Every time an uneducated white male goes down, you can scratch a Trump voter
off the list. And there are many more whites than people of color, so I think
this favors Democrats.

States with large, urban populations, which tend to be
blue, are being hardest hit, which favors Republicans in theory, but these
states (except Texas, Louisiana and Georgia) tend to be so Democratic that it’s
hard to imagine enough of their citizens dying off to change the color of the
state.

Whereas small, rural states are so red, it is hard to
imagine enough change from the lethality of the virus to have much effect on
them either. Fortunately, from the Democratic viewpoint, these tend to be
states with small populations and hence few electoral college votes. For my
money, you can have them all, except those where the fishing is good.

However, if there is going to be any shift among red
or blues states, I think it might be red ones, Nebraska, for instance, whose
residences see many of their friends and neighbors being wiped out by ignorance
and inaction of their leaders, and may begin to wonder what the hell is
happening here?

Bottom line, I think when the first wave of the virus
has passed through before the election, there will be more “absent” Republican
voters than Democratic ones. But I’m really counting on independent female
suburban voters to put an end to Trump. The virus will be a contributing
factor, to be sure, but only an indirect one.

Ban All Immigrants: Trump
announced a total, temporary ban on immigration to protect against the virus
and save American jobs (what jobs?).

Trump made this announcement to everyone
simultaneously, including his own immigration officials, which caught them
completely by surprise and unprepared. Fortunately, the ban bans practically
nobody, so little if anything will change, except Trump gave his ignorant,
xenophobic base a good jack off. (Sudden thought: if Trump jacks off his base,
is that masterbase-ion?)

There is specious plausibility to this idea, but Trump
got it ass backwards. We are the ones with all the virus cases. Other countries
should be banning us from coming there, which for the most part, they are.

Animal Farm: The
Department of Health and Human Services raised a lot of eyebrows when it put Brian
Harrison, chief of staff at HHS in a responsible position dealing with Covid-19.
Harrison has minimal experience with infectious diseases, but he owned a dog
breeding business for six years, so there you are. I’m sure he’ll do a hell of
a job.

Which is just what President George W. Bush said about
Michael D. Brown, head of FEMA when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Brown’s
qualification for FEMA was that he was Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the
International Arabian Horse Association.

Horses and dogs, Incompetent Republican
administrations. Is there a pattern developing here?

Worst State: Early
on, I decided that Texas would get the worst state cup this week because of Representative
Louis Gohmert, easily the stupidest person in the U.S. House, which is really
saying something. (When I want to call someone stupid, I call them a Gohmert.)

Gohmert announced that there is a miracle cure for
Covid-19, a magic sprinkle powder that Germany developed and is using with
great success, though no such powder exists, and Germany has never heard of it.

Then lo and behold, Gohmert is trumped by Trump, who suggests
the best cure may be to ingest Lysol or Clorox or some such disinfectant, and
infuse UV light into ones’ body, though he was vague about how this might
happen.

So, we must infer from this that Trump is not only as
stupid as Gohmert, but rabbit ass crazy, as well. Nevertheless, this is a
weekly state competition, so Texas still gets the cup.

“When
somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.” Kind of reminds you of Nixon and the good old
days of criminality and corruption in the White House, doesn’t it?

Trump made this
assertion and then backed off quickly, something he never does, but in this
case with good reasons, not least of which is that he sounded like Nixon.

Next, it’s not true.
The Constitution (10th Amendment) gives the states authority in
areas not specifically given the federal government, and local policing
authority is one of them.

More significant
politically, Republicans have always been the party of states’ rights and
Trump’s assertion upset a lot of Republican politicians. Clinging to their
states’ rights mantra is how Republicans get away with disgusting things in
some states, which they cannot get away with federally. Republicans want to
hold onto that.

More worrisome to
Trump, it must have dawned on him that if he has total authority, he has total
responsibility, something he wants no part of. If he spreads the authority
among the states, he can hope to dodge any blame.

That being said, make
no mistake that, though the Federal Government doesn’t have the authority to
boss states around on local matters, it has many ways to make a state’s life
miserable if it doesn’t cooperate.

Trump’s
check is in the mail: It
would be laughable were it not so pathetic that Trump insisted his name be on
the relief checks and then said he didn’t know how it happened. This poor, needy
man.

Having Trump’s name on
a check, even if it is just a blob and not the official signature (He’s not
authorized to sign checks on the Treasury, thank goodness. He’s stealing enough
from us already.), is not something that raises confidence. I can think of any
number of things that Trump has insisted on putting his name on that have gone bankrupt,
sideways or been criminally prosecuted.

As an aside, I have
submitted a tax return and I receive Social Security, but I have not received a
relief check with his name on it or otherwise. Not even a direct deposit. I’m
just sayin’.

Shutting Down the Congress: Trump has threatened to do this if Congress doesn’t come back into session and approve his nominations. Setting aside that Republicans (I’m looking at you, Moscow Mitch) started the odious practice of keeping Congress open this way and did it routinely to President Obama to frustrate his appointments, Trump can’t shut down Congress except in extreme, specific circumstances that don’t apply here, and somehow I don’t see Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi embracing the idea.

Then there is the insult
to the Constitution that Trump wants to make recess appointments to posts he
hasn’t even submitted a permanent nominee for yet, because he knows the Senate
couldn’t stomach many of them. Recess appointments were not intended to evade
Congressional oversight. Not even Moscow Mitch will put up with this nonsense.

Close the
Post Office: Though the
Constitution requires a post office, Republicans have been trying to kill it
for years, or at least privatize it so they can turn it over to their rich
friends.

But now Trump has another
incentive to kill the post office. It would put an end to those pesky mail in
ballot arguments before the upcoming election.

One World
Together at Home: I watched
this special (at home) Saturday night. I did not intend to, but someone with
influence on me suggested I do so I did, and I’m glad I did. It was overall a
terrific, moving effort that had to overcome many technical obstacles due to
the virus it was condemning.

One thing I enjoyed
about it particularly was that it was basically an homage to the World Health
Organization (WHO) and other do gooders, which Trump is trying to blame for his
own failures. Practically every celebrity or expert thanked and/or praised the
WHO. The show was basically saying “World to Trump: kiss our rosy red rectum.” I could imagine Trump stewing in his orange juice
upon hearing it. I expect a tweet storm soon.

Prediction:
When the virus is finally under control, many
new homes will be built with showers in the garage.

Worst
state: All the worst states,
save one, are resisting the social distancing and shelter at home guidance for containing
Covid-19. What else would you expect from these sorry states?

That one state, surprisingly, is Arizona, who is doing a better job than the others. To be sure, it is not perfect. Remember last week when I said our useless Governor Doug Ducey had included some unworthy businesses on the essential list, such as hair parlors and nail salons? However, compared to the other worst states, we’re taking it pretty seriously. So, all the worst states except Arizona get a share of the cup this week.

Wisconsin: ignoring
its own stay-at-home order, the Cheese Head State held its primary Tuesday, the
only state with a primary scheduled in April not to postpone it, also refusing
to adopt a mail-in only format, or even extending its mail-in deadline in
response to the disruption of Covid-19, thus disenfranchising countless voters,
even including those who requested mail-in ballot but had not yet received
them.

This event brings into sharp relief the partisan
divide between common sense on the one hand and determined ignorant spite on
the other, not to mention a viciously partisan state supreme court, which has abandoned
all pretense of judicial temperament.

The Republican Party has stopped trying to win votes
and is now only trying to suppress them, because that’s what you do if voters don’t
like your policies and you have no principles.

(An aside: the grandson of a friend and neighbor, a
fine student who is already working at the Salk Institute, had narrowed his
choice at which University to get his PhD to between the University of Chicago
or the University of Wisconsin. On Tuesday, he chose Chicago over Wisconsin. I
wonder why?)

Trump’s campaign rallies: I
don’t watch Trump’s daily briefings on Covid-19 because they are not briefings
at all, but surrogate political rallies, full of disinformation, happy talk,
insults, media slamming and other lies. In other words, Trump’s typical disgusting
farce.

However, I watched a few minutes of one recently, and
I think the media is abetting Trump. They insist on asking questions about
things Trump has said that are obviously lies, trying, I assume, to get him to
tell the truth. This is futile. Trump is never going to tell the truth. The
media are just giving him a chance to tell his lie again, helping him reinforce
it.

I am now in the camp that the rallies shouldn’t be
televised, only interviews with experts. Or in the alternative, charge trump’s
campaign huge amounts to cover them and tag them as paid advertisements. They
are, after all, nothing but campaign rallies.

Various and Sundry Inspectors General: Trump
is firing them willy nilly, plus anyone whose functions resemble theirs, or
anyone with any integrity, for that matter, because they insist on doing the
right, responsible and/or legal thing, which shins a flashlight under the
refrigerator where Trump and the other cockroaches abide.

Inspectors General, at least, are supposed to be
independent, but so long as the executive branch can fire them at will, this is
not possible. The only reason things have worked well so far is that there has
never been a president corrupt enough to be truly afraid of them, only
potentially embarrassed. There should be a limit to a president’s authority
over IGs. Specifically, they should only be removeable for cause in the legal
definition. Change the law.

Testing: I
watch a lot of news about the virus because it is important, but there are two
aspects of the information I am getting that frustrate me. First, I don’t think
we know anything until there is much, much more testing. What we have done so
far is an inconclusive smidgen.

Second, the numbers all seem to be expressed in absolutes.
I would like to see them all reduced to per capita. For instance,
ranking our number of cases and deaths to those in Spain or Italy or Sweden are
meaningless to me unless they are reduced to account for the relative
populations of the countries. Ditto for tests. Trump is bragging about their
having been two million tests here, but two percent is a tiny fraction of our
population. Other countries may be testing much higher percentages of their
citizens (I’m certain most of them are), but the per capita calculation
is not applied.

Re-Opening the economy: There
is a silly debate as to when the economy should open back up and who will decide
when that will be. Some say Trump and some say the virus. I say the economy
will open up when people feel it’s safe enough to go back to work, and not
before.

Linda Tripp died: I
don’t say things like this very often. In fact, I try not to say or think them
at all. But I am glad this miserable excuse for a human being is dead, and I’m
happy that she is. Her betrayal of her “friend” Monica Lewinski exposed the
worst kind of character. Iago was nicer to Othello.

As Lewinski herself said after Tripp sold her out, “I
hate Linda Tripp.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Tomato/tomato: I
say Trump’s base is determinedly ignorant. Jon Mecham thinks it is “willfully
stupid.” You can decide.

Sudden Thought: How
about firing everyone in the Trump administration remotely involved in the Navy
chain of command and putting former Aircraft Carrier Teddy Roosevelt Captain Brett
Crozier in charge? He seems to be the only one with the qualities required for
leadership, and compassion for the personnel he commands.

Super Moon: One
of these occurred this week. They occur when the moon is full and at a time
when the moon is closer to Earth, which increases the impression. In fact, this
moon occurred when it is closer to us than any other time this calendar year. I
haven’t done the math (I’m not sure I could), but the moon was 14% closer to
Earth than average, but the brightness appeared 30% greater. Interesting.

Worst State: Kansas
is on a roll and gets the cup again this week because its Republican dominated
legislature has overturned the Governor’s order prohibiting large gatherings,
including religious services, so Kansans can all go to church on Easter and
infect one another and those with whom they come in contact thereafter. You all
deserve everything that happens to you.

As I publish, the Kansas State Supreme Court has sided
with Democratic Governor Kelly and against the Republican legislative wackos, so
religious crazies won’t be able to kill each other off after all, though I suspect
some will still try.

(As an aside, the three hot spots in Kansas for
Covid-19 all emanated from church gatherings. I’m just saying.)

April Fool’s Day: To
state the obvious, Trump’s prediction that our Covid-19 deaths would go to zero,
and that the whole disease would magically disappear by April was a cruel joke.

Trump is now nodding in the affirmative at the experts’
opinion that deaths from the virus in the U.S. could rise to the hundreds of
thousands, but he still hems and haws about taking truly aggressive action to
address it, leaving the hard work to governors and mayors and individuals.
Perhaps it’s just as well; they’re all more capable of rational action than he.
But, rest assured, when the virus finally does subside, Trump will take credit
for it.

Trump said Saturday night that there is “a lot of
death ahead,” as if it were something he knew but we didn’t, though we did know,
and he was in denial about it. But things would have been worse if he hadn’t
been a superhero. What a pig part!

The price of being stupid: One
expert opined that for every day that we are not in lockdown, deaths will
increase about 15% per day in state where there is not one, due to their failure
to do so. Counting from the day Trump banned travelers from China but has done
almost nothing since, I may be able to calculate per state how many Covid-19
deaths Trump is personally responsible for. I’ll let you know what I am able to
work out.

Note: the deaths can’t all be laid at Trump’s feet.
Some Republican governors are guilty of some of them, due to their own
misfeasance. I’m looking at you, Florida Governor DeSantis. I’ll try to factor
that into my calculations.

On a related note, Thomas Massie, the miserable low-down
Kentucky Republican Congressperson who held up the relief package vote by a day
or two and forced his colleagues to return to D.C. to vote his mischief down,
has earned himself a primary opponent. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving
individual.

Sunday Disservices: Rodney Howard-Browne, the Florida mega-church
minister who held Sunday Services, drawing his flock into close proximity with
one another, thus endangering their health and wellbeing, is still crowing
about this defiance of common sense and disservice to his congregation. (As
anyone who reads my stuff would surmise, I do not consider church an essential
business.)

In my deepest, darkest fantasies, I would love to see this
minister, and his entire gullible, superstitious flock, wiped out by the virus.
In fact, I’d like to see all evangelicals go the way of all flesh gruesomely
because of their hypocrisy and abandonment of moral principles in their
genuflection to Trump. For one thing, it would wipe out the majority of Trump’s
base just in time for the national election in November.

Of course, I can’t and don’t wish it. But I can
fantasize about it.

Infrastructure money in the next relief
package: This was a great idea 12 years ago when President
Obama begged for it. It would have been a big help in recovering from Dubbya’s economic
ruination then, because it would have put people to work. But I’m not sure
fighting for the money in the current circumstances is the right time.

For one thing, it detracts from the immediate priority
of fighting the virus. For another, I don’t see how the money can be
intelligently spent right now, because people are supposed to stay at home and
not get close to one another. It’s hard to see how you can do that and
construct a road or bridge or anything else.

National Institutes of Health: Is
it just me, or does this organization’s logo look like a football helmet?

Masks, I knew it all the time: Because
I am a septuagenarian, and my immune system is badly compromised at present due
to four surgeries on my broken jaw, I have tried to be very cautious about
Covid-19, though my daughters say I am not being cautious enough, in part
because I have been meeting with four other guys for a weekly poker game (we
have suspended this game until further notice.)

American medical experts were at the time saying masks
weren’t particularly helpful, but I wore a mask to the poker games and just
about everywhere else anyway because Asians like them and they are pretty smart,
so I thought why not? As I was wearing mine, I found a genuine benefit from
them on my own: it kept me from touching my nose and mouth.

Since then, American experts have been coming around
to recommending masks, and I was heartened when Dr. Manuel said one reason he
was coming around is that masks keep you from touching your face. I’m feeling
pretty smug.

Briefly noted: Trump
fired Inspector General Michael Atkinson for doing his duty and reporting the
whistleblower letter to Congress, which is Trumps’ right but shouldn’t be
except for cause.

This is nothing but garden variety petty
vindictiveness on the part of Trump, so common that it barely warrants mention,
unless you care about proper functioning of a democratic government.

Worst State: I
was tempted to give the cup to Arizona this week, because our Governor, Doug
Ducey was very late to order the closure of non-essential businesses, and when
he did it was with moronic exceptions, such as beauty salons and nail parlors.
You can’t experience less social distancing than in one of those places,
except, well, perhaps massage parlors. (I wonder if they’re on the list of exceptions.)

But I can’t single out Ducey, because there are other
empty suit governors who have dithered and stalled also. Besides, Arizona is
late for almost everything, including being the last state to recognize Martin
Luther King Day.

As an aside: I often confuse Governor Doug Ducey with
that blithering idiot Steve Doocy on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” Though the
spellings are different, the names are pronounced the same and the individuals
have the same knuckle dragging I.Q.

I laughed out loud, literally, when I heard our
Secretary of State and Kansas favorite son Mike Pompeo accuse Russia, China and
Iran of spreading disinformation about Covid-19. Talk about the pot calling the
kettle a liar. So, Kansas gets the cup this week over Pompeo’s mendacity, not
stupidity.

Coming Attraction: As
this was going to post, The Sunday New York Times reported that after the
disclosure of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, 430,000 people flew directly from China
to the U.S., including 40,000 since Trump said he banned their entry. This news
will require more study before comment.

In my latest blog, I mentioned some long-term neglects
that we are feeling the effects of acutely at this time. Here’s another one,
perhaps the most important one.

Our sickcare system sucks: Despite
all the happy talk from both political parties (Senator Sanders and a few
others excepted), we have a crappy healthcare system. It is the most
expensive in the world and it produces only average outcomes. And for all of
this, our system doesn’t even cover all our citizens.

And don’t even get me started on Medicare Part D – the prescription drug portion. The doughnut hole was supposed to shrink to zero in a few years; it hasn’t. And generic drugs, the ones supposed to keep costs down, keep getting more and more expensive. This is Dubba’s fault. He supported the idea of drug insurance, but he was too craven to ask people to pay for it with a tax increase, or to let Medicare, the world’s largest drug purchaser, to negotiate prices, which is insane.

I have Medicare and a supplement (why?), so things work
pretty well for me, though someone needs to explain to me why my supplemental
insurance, which covers 20% of my costs, is more expensive than my Medicare
premium that covers 80%. It’s a rhetorical question; I know the answer. It’s
one of the reasons our system is so expensive.

Still, I have problems. The paperwork is voluminous. I
get the occasional unexpected bill from some doctor who did something for me that
is not covered by the insurance. Usually, I don’t even recognize the doctor’s
name. I could be getting scammed for all I know.

We need a better, less expensive, more comprehensive
system producing better outcomes. And we could have one, if the insurance industry
didn’t have our legislators by the short and curlies. Let’s elect some braver
ones.

We need a War Production Board*: When
I was getting my MBA at Indiana University, I was fortunate that one of my
professors had been a member of the War Production Board during WWII.
Authorized by President Roosevelt, the WPB took control of much of our manufacturing
capability, goosed it up and focused it on producing war material. We turned
out astronomical numbers of planes, tanks, ships and much more over the course
of the war, and this was on a much smaller industrial base than we have today. They
got it done.

So, why are we struggling to produce ventilators,
masks, gowns, etc. by the millions now? Don’t answer; it’s a rhetorical question,
and we all know the answer.

*And another president. Or both.

Sudden thought: I sense my blogs are getting edgier
and angrier, but I seem to be getting less feedback.